City will count homeless residents

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
7:00 pm EST, Sunday, January 16, 2005

The city will do this by counting its homeless residents for 24 hours on Jan. 25-26 with city workers and volunteers.

"We'll probably have about 20 people working that day," said Deborah MacKenzie, director of welfare and social services. "What we're asking is for anyone who knows where a homeless person is to tell us."

Danbury schools are helping with a survey of homeless families with students in school. Similar surveys are being taken at soup kitchens and food pantries. The Homeless Outreach Team of Catholic Charities of Fairafield County will survey people who are living on the street, in cars, in abandoned buildings or in other non-traditional housing. Danbury is asking nearby towns for their homeless count at the same time, including Bethel, Brookfield, Newtown, Redding, Ridgefield and New Fairfield.

Last year, more than 339 people slept at the city's homeless shelter, and of those, only 51 were not homeless. Almost everyone stayed more than one night.

"These are people with a real need," MacKenzie said. Federal figures show that 75 percent of an area's homeless are from that area.

The city's budget for its homeless runs about $182,646 a year; the state and federal government pay about $118,921 of that. The city pays the $63,725 balance.

In a notice about the homeless count, Wilson wrote that the hardest part is finding people who don't live in shelters and those who are not receiving city or state services.

"Although the Homeless Outreach Team will be surveying those who they know are living on the streets, there may be many more that may be living in campsites or cars," Wilson wrote. "We are asking for the community's help in locating them so they can be included in the count."

MacKenzie said she thinks this year's count may show a higher number of homeless, but not because there are more homeless people. She said this count appears to be better organized and focused than the last count.

People who know where a homeless person lives, or families who were evicted or displaced by fire and are living in campers, motels or other non-traditional housing, can call (203) 796-1650 to leave the information.